RV Winter Rambling 2006-07

The Wild, Wild, West….


Tucson …… the name evokes film reminiscences of the Ol’ West, the frontier towns, guns and gangs, violence and death. It still seems to be a bit rough around the edges – the population appears to be predominantly Mexican and native Indian and poverty is apparent. There seems to be some disparity in the population of Tucson. I’ve seen it billed as anywhere from 450,000 to 900,000 – somewhere in the middle, I suppose. The city is nestled in a basin surrounded on three sides by tall barren mountains. It’s quite picturesque except when the smog settles into the basin and doesn’t easily move out. The skyline is quite underwhelming – only three tall buildings. The entire city core is easily navigated on foot and the tourist bureau provided us with a neat ‘walking tour map’ that zigged and zagged us around the old town and the new.


Tucson has its own style residentially - tracts of single level pueblo-styled adobe houses recede into the environment with their camouflage colours and shapes, unlike Phoenix where the homes are massive and Spanish styled with arches and red tile roofs.


The surrounding desert is luxuriant and fertile in spite of its aridity – abundant groves of saguaro, barrel cacti, agave, prickly pear, ocotillo, cholla interspersed with yellow Palo Verde trees, mesquite and creosote and to the east, grasslands appear and the resultant herds of grazing cattle.

We were watching a film in the Saguaro National Park visitor center, which was narrated by a local O’Odham Indian – he cited the high respect that the tribes have for the land. “To foul the land with garbage is like disrespecting our ancestors and so we take great care to keep our land pristine”. Hah! What hypocrisy. We travelled through many reservations and they were all filthy with garbage, plastic bags, broken bottles, cans and other debris that had been left there for years. I find it very hard to be respectful of their cultures when they care so little about cleanliness.

Pit bulls are the dog of choice in this area, as often happens with the downtrodden. These dogs that are bred and further trained to be vicious, give those with little self-assurance a feeling of power. In many areas, we saw pit bulls roaming loose so we were really careful where we took Caesar out for walks. As we drove down the highway, I sadly noticed someone had a bunch of puppies in an enclosure in the baking sun with a big sign ‘Puppies for sale’. I was horrified that these poor little dogs didn’t even have water available. Then I noticed that they were pit bull puppies……YIKES! It’s too upsetting to deal with.

We didn’t intend to stay so long in Tucson, but the delight of our retired status means we can just wheedle away the days, which is exactly what we did. We bought for $15 the Tucson Visitor Passport – 2 for 1 tickets for various events and other amusements. It paid for itself on our first foray to Biosphere II.


Biosphere II was an experiment in constructing a simulated environment with various ecosystems echoing those of Biosphere I (AKA – the earth). The experiment proved a failure when, several months after eight individuals who had committed to two years under glass, they ran short of oxygen and had to have it pumped in. They had to repeat this oxygen input several more times. It made for an interesting exploration but it seemed dated and a bit ‘Disneyish’.

The Sonoran Desert Museum, built on the slopes of the western mountains, is full of every imaginable species of desert plant. There’s a walk-through aviary of native birds, a walk-through hummingbird garden, butterflies, desert mammals, a geology museum, rattlesnake and gila monster exhibitions. I didn’t like to see the snakes handled as they were for the interest and enjoyment of the audience. It seemed so cruel and uneccessary. On the other hand, the hawk, owl and falcon display was fascinating and the fact that the birds flew free allowed me to stop and view the demonstration without culpability.

We rambled out to Old Tucson Studios where the original movie sets used for hundreds of old westerns and TV series have been turned into a tourist amusement. We watched re-enactments of shoot-outs, stunt demonstrations and a theatre presentation with can-can girls sort of like those at Universal Studios but always entertaining. We finished the day with a train ride around the perimeter of the property. I guess it was all pretty hokey.

The mountains around Arizona are apparently full of caves and we had 2 for 1 tickets to visit the Colossal Cave – just 9 miles east of Tucson. They were dry, warm caves that were a pleasure to roam through exploring – privately owned so the rules were lax. I am comparing them to the Kartchner Caverns a bit further east of Tucson, south of Benson. The State of Arizona has taken them over and they are stunning. They were discovered in 1974 but were kept a secret until the 1990’s. It was 1999 before the State opened them up for public exploration. Rules are tight and rightly so. They close the caves in April when the bats return and don’t open them again until October when the bats migrate once more. This is to protect the pregnant females and the consequential babies. There is no touching of the stalactites or stalagmites and the guide has an assistant who walks behind to make sure that all obey. Also, no bags, no cameras, no drinks or food.

Ste. Francis Xavier Mission – the first white men in the Tucson area were the Franciscan missionaries and their mission today sits on an Indian reservation and apparently they are still trying to save souls. We noticed it each time we drove down the highway to our temporary home at the Desert Diamond Casino, so finally I pulled off the highway to have a look. It’s under reconstruction so we didn’t go inside.

We ended up staying a week in the Tucson area and didn’t even find any spare time to geocache. It’s amazing how much there is to see.

There was no boondocking in the Benson area – no BLM lands and even the Walmart had a ‘No Overnight Parking’ sign. It’s proximity to Kartchner Caverns and Tombstone makes it a busy tourist area. This is when our Passport America membership comes into play – campgrounds at 50% the standard price. We found a little park “Red Barn Campground” that had full hookup sites for only $9.75/night – so we stayed for 3 nights. No wifi though at that price. I had to drive up the road and park outside the KOA (where people pay $40/night) and use their signal. It’s not that I’m cheap (please hold the laughter and derision) – I just like to get value for our money.

In between visits to Kartchner Caverns and the historic town of Tombstone, we did some Geocaching. Once again, it showed us parts of the neighbourhood that we’d never have discovered on our own and gave us lots of exercise, especially when we tried to enter a bird sanctuary marshland from the wrong direction. The Bugman (his GC handle) has hidden several caches in and around Benson and one in right in front of his business which is pest control. As I was signing the log, out came the Bugman to introduce himself and we swapped caching stories. The town of Tombstone is terribly commercial and didn’t hold our attention for long. After a visit to the museum in the old court house and an hour wandering around town, we went back to Geocaching.

posted by O'Leary @ 4:08 PM